Increased attention can stem high hepatitis infection rates-Experts

As the world observes the World Hepatitis day, medical experts have increased calls, advocating more attention for people to get tested and stem infection, mortality rates from the viral disease which causes infection and inflammation of the liver.

“Today is World Hepatitis day, a day set aside for the campaign against viral hepatitis, a hugely preventable disease. The global call for viral hepatitis elimination requires us all to step up our acts now to ensure a hepatitis free world.  With better awareness and understanding of how we can prevent hepatitis we can eliminate this life-threatening infection,” says the Society for Gastroenterology and Hepatology in Nigeria (SOGHIN).

Hepatitis is itself an inflammation of the liver. The condition can be self-limiting or can progress to fibrosis (scarring), cirrhosis or liver cancer. Hepatitis viruses are the most common cause of hepatitis in the world but other infections, toxic substances (e.g. alcohol, certain drugs), and autoimmune diseases can also cause hepatitis.

“One can only laugh when so much noise is made about HIV prevention and abstinence (not that it’s not important) but it can be managed,” Oretayo Oni, a medical doctor in Lagos, tells BusinessDay.

“Hepatitis is several times more infectious and virulent than the HIV virus. Hepatitis A and E are self limiting and transferred via faeco-oral route, but the real killers are the hepatitis B and C viruses with the main hope being vaccination,” Oni adds.

Uchenna Ijeoma, a Gastroenterologist at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Enugu, and a Coordinator of the World Hepatitis Day in Nigeria, further explains that the hepatitis B virus is particularly strong, compared to HIV which is unable to replicate outside a living tissue.

A staggering 95% of people infected with hepatitis B or C around the world do not know they are infected, says the WHO. One reason for this is that people can live without symptoms for many years. When they find out they have hepatitis, it is often too late for treatment to be fully effective. As a result, liver damage becomes cirrhosis or liver cancer.

“The world has ignored hepatitis at its peril,” says Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General. “It is time to mobilize a global response to hepatitis on the scale similar to that generated to fight other communicable diseases like HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis.”

The World Health organization says; around the world 400 million people are infected with hepatitis B and C, more than 10 times the number of people living with HIV. An estimated 1.45 million people died of the disease in 2013 – up from less than a million in 1990.

According to SOGHIN, studies done in Nigeria indicate an average prevalence of 11% to 14% for hepatitis B infection suggesting that about 17 to 22 million Nigerians may be affected by hepatitis B virus alone. The implication is that at least 1 of every 10 Nigerian is chronically infected by hepatitis B and not only at risk of liver diseases and death but also at risk of transmitting it to others.

To prevent the spread of hepatitis, the Society for Gastroenterology and Hepatology in Nigeria (SOGHIN) recommends that the following steps;

•        Avoid sharing personal items, such as razors or toothbrushes.

•        Do not share needles or other drug equipment (such as straws for snorting drugs).

•        Clean blood spills with dilute household bleach.

•        Avoid getting tattoos, body piercings and circumcision with poorly sterilized instruments.

•        Avoid unsafe and unnecessary injections.

•        Avoid transfusion of unscreened blood and other blood products.

•        Avoid casual and unprotected sexual intercourse

Government is also admonished to increase access to hepatitis diagnosis, treatment and care in Nigeria. Also, there should be increased funding for hepatitis care and wider coverage of NHIS to improve access to treatment and care.